Violence from illegal loggers and ranchers means FUNAI, Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs department, has been prevented from properly carrying out its work in the area, leaving the tribe exposed and at risk of annihilation.

The FUNAI team responsible for protecting the Kawahiva’s land requires police accompaniment for their safety and for their expeditions to monitor for illegal logging and evict invaders.

In the Brazilian Amazon, a tiny group of uncontacted Indians teeters on the brink of extinction. Survival’s global campaign is pushing Brazil’s government to protect their land – the only way they can survive.

This film, narrated by Mark Rylance, contains unique footage of the Kawahiva filmed by government agents in 2011, during a chance encounter with the Indians.

Send an email urging Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Department FUNAI to physically map out and protect the Kawahiva’s land, to give them a future.

Survival has launched an emergency action, “4 weeks for the Kawahiva”, to encourage Brazil’s government to map out their land and prevent their genocide before Jair Bolsonaro becomes President on 1 January.

The Kawahiva’s territory lies within the municipality of Colniza, where around 90% of income is from illegal logging. The Kawahiva are nomadic hunter-gatherers, but are now living on the run. They flee the illegal invasions of their forest, which put them at risk of being wiped out by violence from outsiders looking to steal their land and resources, and from diseases like the flu and measles to which they have no resistance.

Jair Candor, the Coordinator of FUNAI’s Kawahiva team, said: “The only way to ensure their survival is to map out the land and put in place a permanent land protection team. Otherwise, they will be relegated to the history books, just like so many other tribal peoples of this region."

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, said today: “In the wake of John Allen Chau’s tragic attempt to contact the Sentinelese people, there has been a great increase in public support for uncontacted tribes to be left in peace. They are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet, but where their land is protected, they thrive.

“The work of FUNAI and environmental protection agents is crucial for preventing the genocide of the Kawahiva, and the destruction of their territory, which is an incredibly diverse part of the Amazon. We urge people to write to the Brazilian authorities in support of their right to survive.”